With the advent of the Internet and the popularization of online shopping, increased importance is being attached to sharing review information about a corresponding product. In particular, in the case of an electronic product, product sales itself may vary according to review information about the product, and online shopping customers who are not in a position to personally see and test a product have no choice but to rely on the review information about it.
At present, such review information is serviced online, based on texts and pictures. In addition, product review services based on moving pictures have also recently been provided.
The text-based product review is given in the form of replies made by users or expert groups. However, it has a problem in that merits and faults of a product are very subjectively explained and are difficult to instinctively understand, so that objective evaluation on the product is ambiguous. Also, it is inevitable for the text-based review to have limitations in describing an operation method, a response speed, a working environment, etc. of a product that is actually operating, as in the case of an electronic product.
Further, the conventional moving picture review is more useful than the text-based review in that it can solve some of problems with the text-based review by showing a process of actually operating a product.
However, since general moving picture review sites employ a scheme in which an expert commentator produces and uploads one moving picture review for each product, they have limitations in providing various moving picture reviews about all products. Additionally, most moving picture reviews are nothing but simple comments on the appearance and some new functions of a product because they have limited time duration, and are produced by the staff, the number of which is considerably smaller than that of products.
Contrarily, some users upload and share UCC-based moving picture reviews descriptive of products that they are using in person, thereby providing necessary information to other users. Therefore, the UCC-based moving picture reviews are advantageous in that various users provide different moving picture reviews for one product, so that diversity can be ensured and much more information can be provided.
However, the UCC-based moving picture reviews have a problem in that it is not easy for general users to have access to information. For example, when a user searches for moving pictures by inputting the keyword “iPhone review” in a moving picture search site, hundreds of moving pictures are retrieved. If the user wants reviews about an e-mail function of the iPhone, it is never easy to specify which of the retrieved moving pictures corresponds to one desired by the user.
Moreover, since each user providing a moving picture approaches product reviews in a different scheme or from a different point of view, there is a difference in reliability between information providers. Furthermore, evaluation on the reliability is not provided in the conventional moving picture services.
Accordingly, in view of such problems, there is a need for a new scheme for moving picture search or product review.